Our campus is going green. To match the university’s efforts with recycling, Facilities Management has a hired staff to turn off lights at night. To learn about the changes, Creightonian staff members sat down with George Tangeman, chair of the Energy Management committee.

George is an Omaha native and has been working at Creighton since 1986. He started in maintenance, changing light bulbs at night, and slowly worked his way up to manager. He is married and has six children, three boys and three girls.

This year, Tangeman implemented a new procedure where a staff member walks around campus and turns off lights.

Not only are the lights turned off, but windows are closed and doors are locked. Energy Management came up with the idea of leaving a slip of paper in a room where the lights were left on, a window was still open or a door remained unlocked to reamin people to stay green.

Because Creighton University’s electric bill is probably going to increase from $311,000 to $320,000 next year, Tangeman and his team have identified many places on campus where they could install motion sensor lights in place of light switches.

Tangeman said one of his favorite parts of working at Creighton is “thinking of ways to save the university utility dollars and working with students.”